Programs Materials Engineering Undergrad Reflection

[Copar]

I just completed my junior year of my Materials Engineering Bachelors.

This is the first year that actually featured materials coursework, and I feel like I've learned things about my major that I wanted to share:

I miss the physics and math of my couple of years. The theory, the "why" and "how". I read Taylor's Classical Mechanics over the summer, and solved problems in it, and loved it. But Materials Engineering doesn't have the same feel. I don't feel as if I'm challenging myself or learning "ideas" such as physics and math derivations.

It's upsetting to not take classical mechanics, solid state physics, or abstract algebra.
I'm taking a math minor with a bunch of applied math classes, and I'm excited for that.

I guess, in my choice of major, I decided that the economic utility of an engineering degree was more valuable to me than my intellectual interests in fundamental physics and math. But now I'm questioning that decision.

 

[Copar]

But on the other hand, maybe I SHOULD treat university as a job placement program. College is expensive, and the economic future of my generation is uncertain.

 

[berkeman]

I guess, in my choice of major, I decided that the economic utility of an engineering degree was more valuable to me than my intellectual interests in fundamental physics and math. But now I'm questioning that decision.

I made a similar decision in my undergrad, opting for the EE path instead of the Physics path that I loved more. Looking back over my career, I think I made the right choice economically.

 

[CrysPhys]

I just completed my junior year of my Materials Engineering Bachelors.

This is the first year that actually featured materials coursework, and I feel like I've learned things about my major that I wanted to share:

I miss the physics and math of my couple of years. The theory, the "why" and "how". I read Taylor's Classical Mechanics over the summer, and solved problems in it, and loved it. But Materials Engineering doesn't have the same feel. I don't feel as if I'm challenging myself or learning "ideas" such as physics and math derivations.

It's upsetting to not take classical mechanics, solid state physics, or abstract algebra.
I'm taking a math minor with a bunch of applied math classes, and I'm excited for that.

I guess, in my choice of major, I decided that the economic utility of an engineering degree was more valuable to me than my intellectual interests in fundamental physics and math. But now I'm questioning that decision.

* <<Emphasis added.>> This is a bit bizarre. Junior year was the first year in which you took materials courses? I was an undergrad at MIT, majoring in physics, but took electives in materials science and engineering (MSE), starting in my freshman year.

* In your previous thread {https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...eful-class-for-materials-engineering.1078790/), you asked about taking a course in solid-state physics offered by the physics dept and for which you had the pre-requisites. Did you not take it? Can't you take other physics courses as electives?

* In your previous thread you also mentioned that you had done some undergrad research in materials, and appeared to be happy with it. With plans to continue on to a PhD, perhaps. That thread was just 3 months ago. What's triggered the sudden buyer's remorse?

 

[DaveE]

Your learning doesn't need to stop once you graduate. You don't have to learn everything now.

Where I live there are several opportunities to continue university studies while you work. The companies I worked for paid for my MSEE degree. I did have to get up early and do HW later in the evening, so I guess it wasn't completely free.

 

[Copar]

* <<Emphasis added.>> This is a bit bizarre. Junior year was the first year in which you took materials courses? I was an undergrad at MIT, majoring in physics, but took electives in materials science and engineering (MSE), starting in my freshman year.

* In your previous thread {https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...eful-class-for-materials-engineering.1078790/), you asked about taking a course in solid-state physics offered by the physics dept and for which you had the pre-requisites. Did you not take it? Can't you take other physics courses as electives?

* In your previous thread you also mentioned that you had done some undergrad research in materials, and appeared to be happy with it. With plans to continue on to a PhD, perhaps. That thread was just 3 months ago. What's triggered the sudden buyer's remorse?

Hey Crys! Thank you for engaging with my post in a deliberate manner.

1) Transfer student, I did not have access to MSE courses until this year

2) Scheduling at my university is not easy, I have to make a decision between math or physics electives. I'm choosing math, because I figure I can teach myself the physics more easily than I can teach myself the math (And I believe I can teach myself the physics because I did so with Taylor's Classical Mechanics)

3) What triggered the buyer's remorse?
a) There's a certain remorse associated with my new understanding that I won't be able to fit certain math and physics classes under my current schedule
b) there's a different remorse associated with my general indecisiveness about my future career. Am I making the right choice with my major when it comes to where I and my partner want to live, the work I'll be engaged with, my ability to go home and see my long term friends / family?

Maybe the problem is I'm indecisive and inexperienced. I've got an internship lined up this summer, where I'll be able to talk to a large variety of engineers and scientists in all sorts of fields. Surely that'll be useful!

 

[CrysPhys]

b) there's a different remorse associated with my general indecisiveness about my future career. Am I making the right choice with my major when it comes to where I and my partner want to live, the work I'll be engaged with, my ability to go home and see my long term friends / family?

Materials science and engineering is a broad discipline applicable to many industries. Any constraints on your personal life would be entirely self-imposed by your specific choice of job. E.g., in the semiconductor and optoelectronic device industries, you'll often find physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers ... and, yes, materials scientists and engineers working on the same team. Broad selection of locales, positions, and work-life balances to choose from.

Other jobs, however, are more restrictive: e.g., if you become a traditional process metallurgist at a steel mill, or if you become a forensic failure analyst responding to plane crashes or train wrecks. If these jobs don't jibe with your lifestyle, don't take them.

These general comments (though not necessarily specific examples) apply to many fields, including physics.

 

[QuarkyMeson]

2) Scheduling at my university is not easy, I have to make a decision between math or physics electives. I'm choosing math, because I figure I can teach myself the physics more easily than I can teach myself the math (And I believe I can teach myself the physics because I did so with Taylor's Classical Mechanics)

By teach yourself Taylors what did that entail exactly?

The main purpose of Taylor’s Classical Mechanics is to teach the calculus of variations, Lagrangian mechanics, and coordinate transformations. Depending on the course, you might also cover Hamiltonian mechanics or special relativity. The entire first half of the book is basically just a review of freshman mechanics.

So, if you only made it through the first handful of chapters in Taylor’s book, you’ve really just been reviewing material you should already know from freshman physics. If you complete the entire book (and no one does because there are arguably better books for many of the extra topics), the genuinely new topics you encounter are arguably more mathematical than physical concepts. This is basically what happens in junior-level physics classes—they’re math classes pretending to be physics classes.

That’s why, to me, choosing extra math classes over physics courses doesn’t make much sense. Why not take physics classes that are actually relevant to materials science, like statistical thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and similar subjects? Why not physical chemistry and the like?

 

[Muu9]

there are arguably better books for many of the extra topics

Can you expand on this? Which better book for which topics?